


Mom

by Scarlett_Rogue



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Poe keeps calling Leia 'mom', please ignore TLJ, she's okay with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 14:17:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13765920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlett_Rogue/pseuds/Scarlett_Rogue
Summary: Poe slips up and calls Leia 'mom' one too many times for her to keep passing it off as an accident.





	Mom

The first time it happens Leia thinks nothing of it. She’s been general long enough to know that when you spend a certain amount of time overseeing people, the m-word is bound to slip out at least once.

“Pilots in position. Awaiting your orders, General,” she hears Poe Dameron’s voice in her ear. 

“Excellent. Fly in slowly, and use caution. We don’t know what we’re up against yet.”

“Yes, mom - ma’am,” Poe recovers quickly. Leia shrugs it off. It isn’t the first time she’s been called mom by one of her people, and it certainly won’t be the last.

-

The next time it happens Leia takes greater interest. She knows her star pilot well enough by now to know that words are a particular specialty of his. He has a quick tongue and even quicker mind; fumbling is not in his nature, not even in dangerous situations.

“A few of our ships have been compromised, but everyone is safe. And I retrieved this.” Poe hands her over a small chip, too small for most of her droids but she can think of one or two who might be able to work with it. She smiles at him and gently touches his cheek, an inch from a gash that hasn’t fully stopped bleeding yet.

“You did a great job today. Stop by med-bay and see that this injury is attended to.” She smiles at him. Poe can’t help but give her a soft smile in return.

“Certainly, mom...MA’AM. Ma’am, I meant ma’am, sorry.” Poe’s voice goes up in octave and he coughs awkwardly. He pointedly avoids eye contact as Leia stares him down, trying to see what she might have missed.

“You’re dismissed,” she says gently. She’s never seen Poe make a faster exit.

-

Leia finds him on the edge of the lake, much further from the base than she likes for her people to travel. Much further than she herself likes to travel what with all her duties, but sometimes you need the water to keep you grounded. She knows Poe needs it after what happened today.

As she settles herself down next to him in the dirt she seems him holding Kay’s helmet in hand. Kay, a pilot with the resistance almost as long as Poe himself, didn’t make it today. She doesn’t say a word as she watches him. His face is streaked with grime and speckles of blood, interrupted only by long lines of dried tears. His throat works hard to try to swallow as he meets her eyes.

“I should be used to it by now. I should be...desensitized by it. Right?” Their eyes meet and something in his slips. The desperation and pain in his eyes causes her to suck in a deep breath. She reaches a hand out and strokes his dusty hair.

“I wish I could say that it gets easier, but it never does. You just learn to accept that pain,” she says gently. He looks down at the helmet in his hands, thumbs stroking the sides.

“I don’t want to accept the pain.” His voice cracks. Leia feels every ounce of his pain as if it is her own. She can’t help but wrap an arm around his shoulders and pull him to her. His defenses down, he slumps into her side and buries his head in her shoulder, his body shaking with tears.

“It’s going to be okay,” Leia says soothingly as she holds him tight and runs her fingers through his hair. A part of her aches that she has been trying to forget, that part of her that once had a child to protect and soothe. And she knows now, after all the slip-ups, that Poe is feeling an opposite ache.

“I’m here for you, it’s okay. Let it out, honey.”

And he whispers through a rough, strained voice, something that Leia knows is no accident.

“Thank you, mom


End file.
